Design and Performance of the IceCube Electronics

• Main Authors: R. Stokstad, For The Icecube Collaboration
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.568.1297; http://lhc-workshop-2005.web.cern.ch/lhc-workshop-2005/PlenarySessions/4-Stokstad.pdf

The first sensors of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory were deployed at the South Pole in January, 2005: sixty modules uniformly spaced on one string at depths from 1450 to 2450 meters and sixteen modules in eight tanks at the surface. PMT waveforms are digitized and time-stamped in the modules. This decentralized digital system architecture permits high quality data to be collected with simple twisted-pair copper wires over distances up to 3 km. An overview of the real-time electronics for IceCube is presented here. The performance of the system, determined with calibration sources and cosmic-ray muons, meets expectations. Photon arrival times are determined to a precision of three nanoseconds relative to a master clock on the surface. I.